If it didn’t say “Moda Center” in great big letters all over the building, Sheldon might have thought it wandered into some kind of dreamland in the OSAA 6A boys state basketball championship semifinal Friday night.

What the Irish did to South Salem and its 25-game winning streak had “Twilight Zone” written all over it.

The Irish exploded against the Saxons with a – read this slowly, folks – 22-2 second quarter and buried them 76-54.

The victory put the Irish (21-6) in Saturday night’s 8:15 p.m. championship game against top-ranked West Linn.

It’s hard to believe in the aftermath of the slaughter that Sheldon was actually losing the game after the first quarter. The Saxons (25-3), who are every bit as athletic as the Irish, got into the open court efficiently, harassed Sheldon around the basket and built a 13-10 lead.

The lead disappeared in the first 46 seconds of the second quarter, and after South’s Jamel Merriweather banked a jumper with 5:59 left in the half, Sheldon erupted for 16 straight points.

The Irish did a little of everything: They got the ball inside to Mitch Herbert for some easy stuff or kicked it out to Logan Davis for a three-pointer, but mostly they just beat the Saxons to the hole. Of Sheldon’s 22 points in the quarter, 18 of them came on layups.

Contested layups, to be sure, but layups nonetheless.

If there was a metaphor for the entire quarter, it came with 15 seconds left. Merriweather, South’s best jumper, got completely free and headed in for a slam. The ball clanked off the back of the rim, Sheldon got it, and seven seconds later Herbert layed the ball in on the other end.

“We’ve had pretty good quarters,” Sheldon coach Dan Clark said. “We had 43 points in one quarter this year. But you don’t expect to have that happen in the state tournament, against a team as good as South Salem.

“That was pretty darned close to perfect. Our kids really locked up defensively on them; nothing was easy. Every shot they took was over a hand.”

South Salem was never even close to contending after that.

“It felt amazing,” said Davis, one of the wings on a senior-heavy roster. “We knew we could do our best here. We know we can have quarters like that.”

The Irish held the Saxons to a shooting percentage of just 32 percent for the game and outrebounded South 42-28.

Herbert led the Irish with 23 points. Davis added 13 and Nick Nestell 10. Seth Erickson led South Salem with 14.